Letting Go.. A Tad Bit Hard

How's your imagination - do you still have it?
Our imagination can be a friend and a foe!

It helps us to imagine all the great things of God! It allows us to paint pictures in our mind of what wonders await us in Heaven, and it takes us to a different place as we draw a deep breath, and enjoy the simplicity of creation while it momentarily eliminates our 'mundane - see it everyday' attitudes.

On the contrary - It also invokes in us the worst case scenario that could possibly happen and prevent us from full enjoyment in life - ESPECIALLY as parents!

I face this everyday and feel it is something I need to get a grip on.
As a Mother, my children are always asking me if they can go somewhere..with someone..to do something...
Today my 17 year old son asked me if he could go on a fishing trip with some mates after school finishes.
I instantly panicked - I saw him jumping off cliffs into the ocean and being forced up against rocks.. Then I saw him eaten by sharks.. or getting a rusty hook in his foot.. or falling in the camp fire with no help for miles.. Or eating food that makes him sick and his friends playing jokes on him that land him in hospital.. I saw the car they were in getting stuck in the tides or rolling on the sand dunes.. SAND DUNES! I saw the sand dunes falling on him and suffocating him.. and I tried to imagine how he would be able to get out of these troubles... OH NO! What if someone kidnaps him...

I simply replied 'I don't think that is a good idea"... Then came the argument lol!
I couldn't tell him all my fears because that's not the sort of man I want to raise...
How did my parents let me do so many things! I just don't understand - Has the access to media made us more aware?

I am now confronted with the following verses to bring me back to the Lord:
2 Tim 1:7 - God did not give me a spirit of fear or timidity but of power, love and self-discipline.
Prov 3:5-7 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding  but acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make straight your paths.
2 Co 4:17 - For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outways them all.
Ps 121:3 - He will not let your foot slip, He who watches over you.
Matthew 6:25-34 - Jesus tells me not to worry about my life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the field, they do not sow or reap or store away and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable then they. Can any one of you by worrying, add a single day to your life.

The list goes on. I get the point.. My children are a gift from the Lord, they are His to take back should their predestination be complete. Only He knows the path ahead for them and I am not to worry.
I try with all my might to keep them safe but in the end they belong to the Lord - I need to trust Him and pray more for my children..

Again I sigh.. this parenting thing is so hard! I just wish I learnt this lesson with my almost 19yr old so I don't have to go through it with my other 5 children..
Do you find it hard as well? Are your children grown up - perhaps you could help me through this part of my navigation through the valley...

Be blessed today I pray - In the name of Jesus!